Conventional video game systems are equipped with enhanced graphics capabilities to create very realistic visuals during gameplay. For example, highly detailed facial expressions, accurate physics, smooth graphics processing, and so on, have dramatically improved the quality of video game graphics in recent years. The result is a life-like quality to the action and movement in video games, bridging the gap between a virtual world and a physical reality.
Additionally, some video game systems provide users (or video game players) with a natural user interface (NUI) that provides users the ability to interact naturally with the video game system. Some examples include video game systems that are equipped with image capturing devices (e.g., cameras, motion controllers, etc.), such as the Microsoft Xbox Kinect®, the Nintendo Wii®, the Sony PlayStation 3®/PlayStation 4®. Users can control and interact with these video game systems through gestures and spoken commands without the need for a separate video game controller to provide an even further connection between the real and virtual worlds.
Some video game systems not only give users a feeling that they are immersed into the virtual game, but also allow the users to create personal avatars for use in the game. Avatars are graphical representations of the user or the user's alter ego or character. In some games, the player's representation is fixed; however, many games offer a basic character model (or template) and allow customization of the physical features as the players sees fit. Typically, video game systems provide the user with an option to select from a predetermined set of characteristics that can be modified and saved as a personalized character. For example, a template avatar can be modified with a variety of clothing, facial hair, hair color, face shape, body size, height, and so on. In addition to selecting predetermined characteristics, some video game systems (e.g., with the image capturing devices) allow users to take their own picture to create their avatar.
However, these conventional game systems have used tricks such as placing one or two captured/uploaded photographs onto a fixed model or hand placing markers on one or two photographs. In recent years, photogrammetry tools have been developed to create highly detailed models (e.g., three-dimensional models) from a sequence of photographs. These tools use high resolution professional camera systems and fully calibrated lighting systems—systems that are very costly for personal use. Even further, the process for creating the detailed three-dimensional models is prone to error. Several cameras typically are used to take numerous photographs simultaneously and can introduce artifacts and non-uniform sampling without perfect alignment and equal lighting. Other factors including illumination, texturing, and facial recognition also pose challenges for creating highly detailed models. In conventional systems, the resulting models also go through several passes of manual tuning by professional artists.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for an improved system and method for capturing a user's likeness in an effort to overcome the aforementioned obstacles and deficiencies of conventional image capturing and modeling systems.